The confusion
by Ivyclimb of MoonClan
Summary: Another challenge I had to write, this is my second one!


Literally frozen, A challenge.

Iceberry led the cats into the forest, snow chilling their paws. Her white fur blended I with the snow it was almost impossible to tell she was a cat, not a heap of white flakes. Life was good, there was almost nothing to do. It has been a great leaf-bare so far. Prey was still too easy to catch, and the borders almost didn't even need re-marking. But Iceberry had felt that bringing some friends on a fake patrol and re-marking the borders would make it fine to slide on the frozen lake.

Snow softly floated to the ground as they reached the border. Her friends; Nightpoppy an all-black she-cat and Sandheart a light sandy brown tom, started marking the borders. Iceberry didn't know why, but she felt like her idea wasn't so good anymore. She felt like she knew it would end badly. She tried to shake the thought from her head but it stuck there, taunting her.

"This is going to be so fun." Nightpoppy was mewing.

Iceberry gave a weak smile, and doubt flickered in her eyes. _What if something went wrong? We're new warriors, surely if we got caught we'd get stuck doing the apprentices work. _Again she doubted her idea, wishing she had never brought them along with her. _It'd be better if we just hunted. _She thought. _That way no one would get hurt. _

Sandheart sensed the panic coming from Iceberry. He flicked his tail, and raced off to the lake. "Last one there is crow-food!" he bellowed behind him.

Nightpoppy lunged after him, and Iceberry followed. Iceberry's lithe shape allowed her to pass up her in no time, and then she sped ahead of Sandheart. Skidding to a halt besides the lakeshore, Nightpoppy and Sandheart came panting after her.

Iceberry gave a proud sniff, and plunged onto the eyes. She grabbed a lose chunk and batted it at Nightpoppy. The three of them played with the chunk of ice for a while, batting it back and fourth with their paws.

The ice went flying past Iceberry's head, and she dove after it plunging onto a thin piece of ice. A loud wail rose form her mouth- to late she disappeared under the water. Water went up her nose, and made her choke in struggle to swim to the surface. Water went through her lungs to, and the awful taste of salt filled her. Batting her small white paws barley did anything against the cold, dark water. It dragged at her fur, pulling her further and further under. Her vision went dark and she lost all signs of thought as she sunk. Her body went limp, and a dark shape came closer and closer to her. Her body was numb, she couldn't feel anything, nothing at all. A pair of jaws clamped around her neck tightly, and she was hulled upward.

She hacked up mouthfuls of water, shaking as the crisp air surrounded her. Air flushed through her lungs and she took gasps of air. Still shaking, she whimpered and huddled close to her friends.

"Iceberry!" Sandheart was standing above her, gazing down at her. Nightpoppy was at her side, and they both looked worried beyond belief.

"I'm fine." Iceberry managed to cough up. Her pelt stung, and it felt like every hair on her pelt was going to fall off.

Without discussing it, the three of them got up and began to make their way across the ice. Iceberry was huddled in the middle of the two, almost to weary to take another step.

The wind picked up and ruffled their fur the wrong way. The ice began to crack under their paws, and they made a made a mad dash for it. Step for step, the ice melted and the lake became water again, and the three cats disappeared under the ice.

Iceberry tried to paddle upwards, but was trapped by the ice. She thudded her paws, breaking through the ice to take a gulp of air and vanished underwater again. The water stung her eyes but she found two shapes in the water, getting further and further away. She tried to plunge after them, but water went up her nose and stung her eyes, running out of breath she opened her mouth and water went into her lungs. She franticly kicked and pumped her legs, but she couldn't find an opening in the ice. She tried pounding her paws on the ice like last time, but her small body was much too weak. She gave a silent prayer to StarClan, and began to search for her friends once more before she completely gave up filled her eyes as she let go of all hope and began to sink, Nightpoppy and Sandheart nowhere to be seen, her vision turned grey, and then black, and her heart stopped beating.

Iceberry blinked open her eyes and found herself in her nest. She shook her fur. _What a horrible nightmare. _She gazed around. This wasn't her den! The grass was bright green, and the sun was shining. Cats all around her mingled, mewing and having a great time. She didn't recognize any of the cats, and their scent mingled together. Her pelt was still wet from the lake, and her lungs still stung. She felt like she had gulped down the whole lake, and her pelt tinged with nervousness. In her head it all clicked together, piece by piece. _I'm in StarClan!Oh no! This can't be right! Where are Sandhert and Nightpoppy?_

Iceberry raced around, and saw the cats disappearing before her eyes. Two cats remanded in the soft green grass, a night black she-cat and a light sandy colored tom. The sun disappeared and darkness met her eyes again. Dead trees sprouted from the ground, and an awful smell met her nose. A dark green sea of water went on and on, it never seemed to end. She couldn't see a cat in sight.

She spent many moons traveling in the darkness, the scent of fear clinging to her pelt. She met no cat in her travels, and wasn't sure if that was good or bad. She often tried swimming and trying to drown herself in the dark green sea of water, but it never seemed to work, it just brought more pain and sorrow to her.

One day she just gave up all hopes of getting out of the darkness, and by sitting there is really did click in her head. She wasn't in StarClan at all. She was in the Darkforest.


End file.
